Tag Archives: tiger

November 13, 2016

Check out our handsome Tiger! Here is Griffin’s pre-school picture from this year and below is his Tiger class photo along with teachers Miss Jen and Miss Irma. He is really enjoying school and comes home telling stories about what he did and talking about his friends. It’s pretty cute! He eats lunch there too and typically eats really well. When I pick him up and he is telling me about his day we check out his lunch and he is so proud when he eats really well 🙂On Tuesday, Election Day, we headed to the polls and took Griffin along. Our polling location is always active and busy yet we don’t have to wait so we were in and out pretty quickly. Afterward we headed to our traditional Annie’s Southern Kitchen for a tasty breakfast before Kevin and I headed to work.  Here are a few others from this week before we left on our annual trip to Tennessee. Finn loves player with Cooper and Cole whenever they are home and outside. They enjoyed a fun afternoon playing in the leaves. He also made some fun artwork with Debbie this week including a Turkey, a pilgrim hat, and a feather hat.  
I made it to Fox in the Snow for a special treat one afternoon after a doctor appointment at Riverside.  We met with a genetic counselor, the specialist, and the sonographer who performed a detailed ultrasound called the Ultra Screen where they look at the thickness and fluid in the cavity of the spinal cord area at the base of the baby’s neck (called nuchal translucency). This measurement, along with a blood sample of mine that we had sent off in the mail, is used to assess the risk of Trisomy 18, 13, or 21. An increased thickness can indicate possible chromosomal issues and because of our history with Nathan and his Trisomy 18 diagnosis, we opted for the least risky procedure that would provide insight on the health of the baby. We were elated to learn that the scan showed a very normal spinal area/thickness. The baby was actually in a perfect “textbook” position when she first looked so she got some great images. They also look at the nose for the presence of a nose-bone which is another positive, as the lack of one can also indicate chromosomal issues. Everything looked wonderful. I left feeling so relieved. It doesn’t mean everything is guaranteed to be perfect by any means, but it was reassuring to hear from the specialist that the baby looked great.

We left early on Friday morning for our trip to the Smoky Mountains. We arrived at our cabin, Smoky Bear, and were a bit scared at the sight of the driveway and its pitch. Yikes! It was kind of like going up and down a roller coaster where you can’t quite see where you are headed! But after a few trips we were good to go 🙂 Finn loved playing with the oven mitts and a package of ping pong balls that we purchased to play some “baseball” in the cabin. It was amazing that he was able to catch so many!Smoky Bear had a pool! We enjoyed playing in the pool although it was not very warm! So our stints were rather short but we had plenty of good times! One of our first adventures in Tennessee was a new adventure for us. We drove through part of the Smoky Mountains National Park and saw some landmarks there like the Chimney Tops area on our way to Clingman’s Dome. A new adventure for us this year as we walked the paved, very steep, half-mile trail to the summit at 6,643 feet, which is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Griffin had fallen asleep on our way there so he was in no mood to walk up the steep incline. He was lucky enough to be carried by his daddy most of the trail. Walking up the ramp to the observation tower was a bit scary if you looked down! Here is our family selfie at the top of Clingman’s Dome.  It was a hazy day, with all of the forest fires in the area, so the views weren’t as great as we were hoping. But it was a fun adventure to the top!

October 2, 2016

img_9588It’s definitely Fall around here – OSU football and apples are in full swing. I’ve been enjoying taking Tuesday’s off and taking Griffin to school.  I love hearing about his day and the stories that he has to share. This day we took Tony the Tiger back from his weekend of fun with us. Part of having the class mascot is journaling what adventures and fun you had with him. Kevin put together a neat collage with all of our weekend activities! img_9540 After school Finn and I headed downtown to enjoy a treat at the North Market. I had some tasty veggie dishes from The Little Eater, and as you can see Finn attacked a large pretzel!img_9541 I love it when Finn does art at school or with Debbie. He is so excited to share what he made and tell about it.  Here he drew the Earth!img_9542 All things apples! This week Debbie had a fun activity making applesauce with the apples we picked last weekend with Mom and Dad.  And at the end, after all the hard work, Finn sampled his work – it was delish!img_9569 img_9573 img_9575 img_9576 I also love arriving home to or seeing pictures throughout the day of Finn playing dress-up and pretend. He’s got a very creative imagination and tells the best stories with his outfits. Even Lily got to wear some props. img_9553 img_9568 Kevin and I met up with the Vertuccis this week for date night at the new Pins Mechanical in downtown Cbus. It is a new concept for adult entertainment that includes numerous pinball machines, ping pong tables, and duck-pin bowling! That was our first go at playing duck-pin and it was so fun! We had a great time (and yours truly happened to win!). img_9557 img_9559 img_9538 Friday was the Fun Fest at Griffin’s preschool.  There are many games, one held in each of the preschool classrooms, hot dogs, ice cream, and prizes! It was a fun evening and you can see here, in Finn’s Tiger class – he pinned the spider in the center of the web! Yay Finn!img_9580 img_9582 img_9587-2On Saturday the doorbell rang and Lily went nuts of course. Kevin retrieved a package sent to Finn from Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein. Turns out when they were cleaning the basement they came upon a Tyger (note the spelling) from Dad’s school board days – so they were kind enough to send it to our Tiger! Finn has loved sleeping with it 🙂img_9589 img_9590

And did I say it is all things apples this time of year? We ventured out on Sunday for a family activity with our small group from church to pick apples. This time we went to Orchard and Company in Marysville, our first time there.  They have a ton of kids activities too, which Finn really enjoyed.  He even got to zip line. He loved it, of course, and probably went 8 times in a row.

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September 4, 2016

img_8928This week was Griffin’s Pre-School Orientation on Thursday. This year he is going to be a Tiger and will go to school two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday. I went with him and met his teachers, Miss Jen and Miss Irma, and we played for about a half an hour. It was just a short visit so he could see his classroom and get comfortable with his surroundings. Afterward I thought it would be fun to have a little date together since I was off for the day. We went to First Watch for a nice brunch and then headed for a fun activity at Color Me Mine. Griffin chose a huge Spider Man coin bank and I chose a simple pleated bowl. We both had a lot of fun painting our projects and we will get to pick up the finished projects next week!img_8929 img_8934 img_8936 img_8939 img_8940 img_8943It was also a rather noisy week as we got a new roof! It took about two solid days of work, with a crew of about 6 or more guys working all day. I was pretty nervous to pick the shingle color as we have a huge roof and the wrong would look bad, obviously! But I must say, we picked an excellent color! Kevin and I were both quite happy with it as it goes really well with our new paint color and has some flecks of our brick in it as well.

Here are some before photos of our orange-brown roof:img_8904 img_8908

And here are some during and afters with our gray-brown roof and new skylights!img_8944 img_8946 img_8951 img_8963 img_8967 img_8973 img_8974Google just so happened to remind me of the below photo from one year ago. A lot has changed since then – our house color, a new roof, new skylights, and our shrubs out front have grown like crazy! We also planted three new trees this year. I’m excited for next spring already!img_9225Finn had a fun week of play too. He often gets out with Sammy and our neighbors Cole and Cooper early in the week. They have a lot of fun together! He and I ventured to Graeter’s one afternoon with Lily (she had her follow up appointment for her teeth, so she was with us) and she got a pup cup! And we’ve gone on several bike rides this week in our neighborhood. Finn has really been enjoying riding his bike and he is getting to be really great balancing and lifting his feet off the ground for long stretches of time. He’s gotten so much taller that we had to raise his seat up a notch. I remember when we gave him this balance bike he couldn’t stand all the way with his feet on the ground yet!img_8900 img_8889 img_8890 img_8892 img_8894 img_8895 img_8978 img_8996 img_8987 img_8980